May 2025 Newsletter

📣 News & Announcements 📣

May of Momentum: A Big Thank You! 👏

If you’ve noticed a steady stream of daily posts in your social media feed lately, you’re seeing the magic of May of Momentum in action! This wouldn’t be possible without the thoughtful contributions of a dozen NNOCCI members—and the creative energy and coordination of Laura Castellini, Cassie Klein, and Megan Stouffer.

Huge thanks to each of you for bringing this idea to life and helping keep our momentum going!

🐊 Grant Opportunity

NNOCCI, along with our fiscal sponsor The Marine Mammal Center, is in the final stages of submitting an application to the National Academies Gulf Research Program (GRP) grant opportunity, 'Environmental Literacy for Community Resilience'. The goals of this funding opportunity are similar to our successful 2021-2023 Trainer Course program (through the NOAA Environmental Literacy Program), but with the added goal of creating community resilience action plans, which participants will then deploy with our assistance and track the success of during the span of the funding.

If selected, this project will seek dyads of participant 'Fellows' from 24 Gulf-based organizations to participate, with one cohort in 2026 and another in 2027. Selection for this opportunity will be announced in late August - keep your fingers crossed!🤞

Learn Something New  📚

May Member Event: Let’s Talk Electrification! ⚡
Thursday, May 15 at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET

Electrification—think solar panels, induction stoves, EVs—is a top strategy for cutting carbon. But what’s it really like to take on these projects at home?

Join us for a lively conversation between NNOCCI’s Treasurer Adam Ratner and Membership Director Lisa Yeager as they dive into the real-life adventures of going electric—the wins, the laughs, and the occasional surprises.

After this free Members-only event, you’ll walk away with relatable stories, practical insights for your own electrification journey, and fresh examples to use in your climate interpretation work.

Let’s spark ideas—and maybe a few giggles—together.

Changing the Conversation: An Introduction to Effective Climate Change Communication 💬

Friday, June 27th from 11:00am PT/ 2:00pm ET

Trying to communicate climate change, but people just don't seem to respond to your facts and science? As important as knowing the climate science is, social science provides evidence-based practices that allow us to communicate climate science more effectively. Whether you’re new to the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI), or you’d like to learn more about us, this is a great opportunity to connect!

Join skilled NNOCCI trainers Krystal Krucik (Public Programs Coordinator, The Marine Mammal Center) and Jessica Schellhorn (Education Manager, Blank Park Zoo) in learning how specific values and metaphors make your audience more receptive to climate change messaging and join a community of communicators changing the climate discourse to be more positive, civic-minded, and solutions-focused.

NNOCCI is supported through a fiscal sponsorship with The Marine Mammal Center. With 15 years of success, NNOCCI is widely recognized as the United States' leading climate change interpretation training program, and recently expanded its work into Canada. NNOCCI’s evidence-based trainings and network outcomes have been validated in dozens of peer-reviewed publications.

Membership News 🌊

👋 Meet Your Regional Leaders 👋

North and Central California

Hello all! My name is Laura Drath and I am a regional interpretive services supervisor with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, based in the Sacramento area. I was fortunate to participate in the final in-person NNOCCI Study Circle in fall of 2016. I am also a regional coordinator for Project WILD and a former board member of the National Association for Interpretation, Sierra Pacific Region. Though I was born in Montana, I’ve been a Californian since I was three!

Midwest

My name is Jessica Schellhorn and I’m the education manager at Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa. I joined NNOCCI after taking the crash course in the fall of 2023 and have since joined the Governing Council as a Regional Leader as well as TAed on Crash Courses. I also serve on AZA’s Coral SAFE program steering committee. I’ve lived in the midwest my whole life and I guess as another midwesterner might say “there’s no place like

South Central

My name is Miranda Madrid, and I am the Science & Communications Coordinator for the NOAA RESTORE Science Program. I first learned about NNOCCI at a workshop in 2019. I took the NNOCCI crash course in fall 2020 and then served on the Governing Council from 2021-2023 as a member of the JEDI and Communications committees. I have spent most of my life in Texas - growing up in Fort Worth, getting my marine science degree in Port Aransas, and now living in Austin! I'm excited to meet fellow members in the South Central region and build support for locally relevant solutions across our different communities.